In 2013, thinktank Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) had the foresight to announce an annual fellowship to honour the late former President S R Nathan.

Known as the S R Nathan Fellowship for the Study of Singapore, a distinguished Singaporean is appointed to pursue research related to public policy and governance in Singapore and to deliver a series of public lectures.

The first two S R Nathan fellows were Banyan Tree Holdings executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping (2014) and Ambassador-at-Large Bilahari Kausikan (2015).

IPS Director Janadas Devan, who is the son of former Singapore president Devan Nair, delivered a speech during a lunch event in 2012 to announce the fellowship and it's one of the best tribute yet:

1. The sheer range and breadth of former President Nathan’s life takes one’s breath away.

"His childhood reads like a Dickens novel -- a cross between David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, only located in Malaya and Singapore.

His early adult years, through the Second World War and the post-War period, read like a Conrad novel -- not quite Heart of Darkness, perhaps Lord Jim."

2. His public career is "some unlikely combination of George Orwell, John Le Carre and Gabriel Garcia Marquez".

"The astounding trajectory from office boy to trade unionist to diplomat to intelligence chief to newspaper publisher to academic administrator to chief of state — there is no single novel I can think of that would come close to matching this improbable, astonishing life."

3. A few simple themes recur again and again in his life: Duty. Honour. Country.

NTUC: "Mr Nathan was among the small — a tiny group actually — that established the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in the early 1960s. They had their backs to the wall; they didn’t think they would survive; they did. And this is something very important, especially for the young, to know about the people of Mr Nathan’s vintage, our founding generation: They are survivors who didn’t expect to survive."

Civil service career: "[H]e was present at the creation — this time of the Foreign Ministry -- where he worked with Mr S Rajaratnam (Singapore's first foreign minister). Then it was on to the Ministry of Defence, where he took charge of the Security and Intelligence Department, Singapore’s external intelligence wing. He worked with Dr Goh Keng Swee, meeting him every Saturday morning, for nine years or so."

Other achievements (and adventures): "[He] founded the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies – and oh yes, had a few other adventures along the way, like offering himself as a hostage to terrorists. Even Gabriel Garcia Marquez wouldn’t have thought of that — and then topped all that by imagining two terms as President for the hostage!"

Janadas concluded by saying,

"It will be the first of its kind for IPS — and indeed, perhaps the first of its kind for any research institution in Singapore, for there is no other named professorial fellowship in the country. But we think that is only appropriate — a sui generis, one of its kind fellowship, for a sui generis man, the only one of his kind: Mr S R Nathan."

You can read his full speech here.

Top photo from Institute of Policy Studies

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